June 2, 2023

Wow! We made it to Paris after an 8 hour overnight flight. We arrived at 8am ready to go. We stayed at an AirBnB in Boulogne-Billancourt. It was quiet and quaint, but I think if I were to stay in Paris again, I would reside closer to the heart of the city. We paid about 20$ in Uber fees there and back from the apartment. 

We bought a Go City Pass which was well worth it. https://gocity.com/en-us

Quick cap of our 48hours in Paris

• Climbed the Eiffel Tower to 2nd level. Could not get to top due to "too many people". What France?!? Oh well, we will have to now go back. 
• Ate dinner on a boat on the Sienne. I was hoping it was going to embark but it never moved. Ha! Sucka. But the pommes de frites were delicious. 
• Saraya and I made our own perfume at Fragonard. Highly recommended, my favorite thing to do in Paris. Now I must visit Grasse. Quick note - perfume used to be a solid, not a liquid. 
• Toured Notre Dame de Paris. It caught fire in 2019 so we could not go inside, but we did a tour and learned more about the importance of Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame. I thought we would also see the crypts but realized that it is a different Notre dame. Apparently there are a lot of Notre Dames in Paris. Still a sucka!
• Rode the Big Bus around town. Visited the Apple store on the Champs Elysees and drank St. Germaine (my favorite) while watching all the people stroll the Champs Elysees. Seriously it is the coolest shopping row I have ever seen. 
• Saraya posed in front of the Arc de Triomphe. Voila! Done. Or so I thought...... wait for the rental car story.

Memories from Anna's solo adventure to the Louvre. No, I did not see one painting. I went alone at 8am to pick up the rental car. Yes, at the Louvre. As I wheeled and dealed to get a decent size car, I realized I did not have my passport. I counted 1, 2, 3.... not 4 passports! I had everyone's passport but mine. Oh for crying out loud, where was it? Luckily my Idaho DL sufficed in France... so strange. Once that was settled, I drove through the heart of Paris during rush hour - every obstacle I could imagine presented itself. Thankfully I had been playing Mario Cart in North Carolina so I was prepared. I made it safely to our apartment. Once there, we had a fiasco with the host who wanted us out an hour early because he is an old French man who wants everything to go his way (they drive like that too!). We rushed out of the apartment but luckily I remembered - where is my passport?!? Along the sidewalk, I pulled out all of our luggage (we do not travel light) and filtered every nook and cranny. No passport. The last place I saw it was my clever hiding place amongst a used box that looked like trash. I hid our passports in this box the day before, then I pulled them out, placed them in my purse and chucked the box. The Trash!!! I had thrown the trash in the dumpster to appease the angry Frenchman. I just now needed to access the dumpster and search. I called a random person on the intercom who kindly let me in when I spoke English in a panic. I entered the lobby of the apartment, dove into the dumpster, found our trash bag and Voila! My passport! Oh thank you Goddess Fotuna! After all the chaos, we bolted Paris in our new Citroen with a mixed feeling - to return or not? I think so...

We do have to return the rental car!